Winter is here, and we finished the preparations just in time. This is a shot of approximately 30% of the insulation I had to buy for this project:

I’ve been working feverishly at the insulation in the hopes of getting it finished before leaving on vacation. I got close, but not as close as I’d hoped, since every single bay, electrical hole, junction box, etc had to first be sealed and insulated with expanding poly foam which took a couple more days than I’d figured. At the last minute I begged a couple close friends to come over and help and we all slaved away for a few hours. (These are great people. I will stuff them with delicious woodfired pizza and will even attempt to like beer for them).

We didn’t get it quite finished, but I only had a few more hours of work to do the next (last) morning:

And check this out:

Insulation, where previously was only a gaping empty hole. (I’m pretty sure this is probably the only insulation in the ceilings of this half of the house. But since that half is not accessible from the attic, it’ll have to stay that way.)

While that was happening, this was happening too:

Can’t have insulated walls and turn on the heat when the ceiling is gaping open in three different rooms!! I know my limits, and there was no way I could do ceiling drywall by myself. It’s definitely a two-person job, but Josh has better things to do (like working to finance this project) so I made a judgement call and asked my trusty Carlos to do the drywall for me.

Oh, it’s just beautiful. (That square hole is attic access which I did patch in later).

Walls insulated, ceiling closed up – I turned the heat on to a sweltering 40*F. It was lovely. I could take off the first two of my several outer jackets and work with a modicum of mobility again. My fingers didn’t even go numb all day.

Look at this baby. So shiny. So warm.

Carlos and the guys can’t drywall the walls until the insulation has been finished and inspected*. That can’t happen until I caulk the outsides of all the carpentry joins, double studs, etc., and then staple and tape the insulation batts.

In the mean time at least I can turn the heat on in there now, because this was what the road looked like as I drove away:

And it only got worse – it’s 12 degrees right now! That’s just nuts!

*Insulation inspection is its own boondoggle. I’m stuck at that point since I want to get the energy company rebates for insulation (up to 75% off the total cost including labor!) but I can’t apply for those until I do a blower test (for a direct before/after comparison). But I can’t do a blower test until I have my walls all drywalled. But I can’t get my walls drywalled until I have my insulation inspection done. But I can’t get my insulation inspection passed until my attic and basement are already insulated. So it goes round and round… and figuring that out is my next big task. It may be that I just can’t get the rebates – which is BS since there was NO attic or basement insulation before, and the wall insulation was moldy, wet, and disgusting! Either way, once that inspection is done we can get some actual walls in here and it’ll feel like we’re in the home stretch.

This entry was posted
on Monday, January 1st, 2018 at 2:23 am and is filed under rehab.
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